Download WWII Reading Guide

7.1 Reading Guide: Rise of Aggressive Dictators
Peace Dissolves
1. Which 3 countries were the only ones that really had any say in the peace negotiations at Versailles after WWI?
2. How did Germans feel about the Treaty of Versailles? Why were Italy and Japan angry with the treaty?
3. What was the impact of the Treaty of Versailles?
4. What is a totalitarian dictatorship? How is it different than a democracy?
5. Why did totalitarian dictatorships rise in the years leading up to WWII?
Strict Regimes in the Soviet Union/Italy
1. What happened in Russia in 1917?
2. Who took over communist leadership in the Soviet Union after Vladimir Lenin’s death in 1924?
3. How did Joseph Stalin rule the Soviet Union? How many people died from his efforts to industrialize the Soviet
Union?
4. What was the Great Terror? What was the Gulag?
5. How did the end of WWI lead to the rise of totalitarianism in Italy after WWI?
6. Who was Benito Mussolini? What did he promise to Italians?
7. What actions did Mussolini take after he became “Il Duce” (the leader) of the government in Italy in 1922?
Germany and Japan Change Leadership
1. What type of government was the Weimar Republic in Germany after WWI? What problems faced the German
government?
2. What global event triggered the rise of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler in Germany in the 1930s?
3. Who were the Nazi’s? Who was the Nazi Party leader?
4. What was Hitler’s Mein Kampf? Which groups did he attack most directly in Mein Kampf?
5. What is anti-semitism? Who did Hitler blame for Germany’s problems?
6. What position did Hitler earn in the Weimar Republic in 1933?
7. What actions did Hitler take to increase his power in Germany after he gained full control of the government in
1935?
8. What global event helped lead to the rise of military rule in Japan in the 1930s?
9. Why did military leaders in Japan argue Japan needed to expand in Asia?
10. Where did Japan and take over in 1931?
11. Where did Japan invade in 1937? How many people were killed in the “Rape of Nanking?”
Dictators Move to Gain Territory
1. What major weaknesses plagued the League of Nations?
2. What actions did Adolf Hitler take to defy the Treaty of Versailles? What did Hitler mean by “lebensraum?”
3. What area did Germany takeover in 1935? What region did Germany occupy in 1936?
4. How did the League of Nations respond to Hitler’s actions?
5. Where did Italy invade in 1935? How did the League of Nations respond?
6. What happened in Spain in 1936-1939? Who did Hitler and Mussolini help win?
Aggression Meets Appeasement
1. What was meant by Britain and France’s policy of appeasement?
2. Why did Britain and France pursue appeasement?
3. What was Franklin Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy?” How did it improve relations with Latin America? Why
did he do this?
4. What other nation did Roosevelt improve ties with?
5. How did Hitler react to appeasement? What area did he take over in 1938?
6. How did Britain and France react when Hitler tried to take over the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia? What was
the Munich Pact?
Summary Questions
1. List the leader for each of the countries’ below:
a. Germany:
b. Italy:
c. Soviet Union:
d. Japan:
e. United States:
2. How did the League of Nations respond to aggressive military actions by Germany, Italy, and Japan?
3. What actions did Stalin take to gain absolute control in the Soviet Union?
Ch. 7.2 Reading Guide: America Debates Involvement
Roosevelt Criticizes Acts of War
1. What actions did Japan take against China beginning in 1937?
2. How did Roosevelt respond to Japan’s actions? What was his response to isolationists?
3. What was most Americans response to Roosevelt’s calls for action?
4. What did Britain and France realize in 1939? What area did Hitler takeover in 1939, in violation of the Munich
Pact?
5. Who did Britain and France sign an alliance with in 1939?
6. What was the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact? Why did Germany sign the pact with the Soviets? What
territory did they split?
7.
When did World War II begin?
8. What 3 major nations made up the Axis Powers?
9. What 5 major nations eventually made up the Allies?
10. Which two countries fell to Germany in April of 1940?
11. Which two countries fell to Germany in May of 1940?
12. What area did Germany invade France through in June 1940?
13. How many British and French troops had to be evacuated across the English Channel at the Miracle at Dunkirk?
Why was this event so significant?
14. What happened to France after it was conquered by Germany in June of 1940?
15. Where did Hitler look to invade after taking over France?
16. What happened in the Battle of Britain? Why was it so significant?
American Reaction is Divided
1. How did President Roosevelt’s opinions at the beginning of the war differ from most Americans?
2. Why did many Americans oppose getting involved in Europe? What theory arose in the U.S. as to why the U.S.
entered WWI?
3. What were the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937? (List 3 specific parts of the Neutrality Acts).
4. What was the Neutrality Act of 1939? How was it different than the previous Neutrality Acts?
5. What was Cash and Carry?
6. Why did some interventionists in the U.S. begin supporting President Roosevelt’s calls to aid to the Allies?
7. Why did isolationists argue against aiding Britain and the Allies?
8. How did Germany’s actions in the Battle of Britain convince many Americans to support building its defenses?
9. What was the Tripartite Pact?
10. What was the Selective Service Act passed by the U.S. Congress?
11. What was the Destroyers for Bases Deal made between the U.S. and Britain in 1940?
12. Who won an unprecedented 3rd term in the 1940 Presidential Election?
America Moves Closer to War
1. In his famous “Four Freedoms” speech in January 1941, what Four Freedoms did President Roosevelt argue were
threatened by Germany and Japan?
2. What did Roosevelt believe was the best way to limit Germany, but stay out of the war?
3. What did Roosevelt mean by America being the “great arsenal for democracy?”
4. What did the Lend Lease Act authorize the President to do? How much money and supplies did the U.S. send to
the Allies and the Soviet Union during WWII?
5. What did President Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, discuss in August 1941?
6. What was the Atlantic Charter? What did the charter signal? Why was it so significant?
7. How did Hitler respond to American aid to Britain beginning in the fall of 1941?
Ch. 7.3 Reading Guide: US Enters WWII
Japan Attacks the United States
1. List 3 reasons tensions were brewing between the U.S. and Japan in the decades prior to 1941.
2. What did President Roosevelt do in July 1940 and Japan continued to expand in China and into Indochina?
3. Who became Prime Minister of Japan in 1941? What decision did he make in December 1941 as relations
between the U.S. broke down?
4. What was the mission/goal of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
5. What was the effect of the attack on Pearl Harbor on the US Navy?
6. On what date/year did President Roosevelt call on Congress to declare war on Japan?
7. Which other nation joined the Allies following Germany’s violation of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact?
8. Who declared war on the U.S., following Japan’s declaration of war on the United States?
9. Who were the 3 main allies of the United States against the Axis?
Patriotism Inspires Rapid Mobilization
1. Who directed the U.S. military buildup? How many Americans served in the military during the war?
2. How many Mexican Americans served? Native Americans? African Americans?
3. What roles did women play in the Women’s Army Corps?
4. Why did President Roosevelt create the War Productions Board in January 1942? What did factories convert to
making for the war effort?
5. How did the unemployment rate change from 1938 to 1944?
6. How did American Industry give the Allies an advantage over the Axis?
The Early War in the Pacific
1. What advantages did the Japanese military have over the U.S. early in the war?
2. Who was the commander of U.S. forces in the East Asia? What territories did Japan takeover from the U.S. in
the Pacific?
3. What was the Bataan Death March? What territory finally fell to Japan in May 1942?
4. What was Japan’s strategy in the Pacific to discourage the Allies from fighting?
5. Why was the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942 significant, despite it being a military draw?
Ch. 7.5 Reading Guide: The Home Front
Patriotism on the Home Front
1. WWII raised the national debt from $42 billion to $269 billion. What two measures did the U.S. take to fund the
war effort? What is a war bond?
2. Why did Roosevelt create the Office of Price Administration? What did it have the authority to do?
3. What items did the government ration?
4. What was the job of the Office of War Information? How did they attempt to build morale/support for the war?
5. How did Americans voluntarily contribute to the war effort?
Japanese Internment during WWII
1. Which 3 immigrant groups faced the most restrictions in the U.S. during WWII?
2. What was Executive Order 9066? How many Japanese Americans were forced from their homes?
3. List 4 reasons Japanese Americans faced harsher treatment than German or Italian immigrants.
4. What was the policy of internment towards Japanese Americans? What were the conditions like in Japanese
Internment camps?
5. Despite a majority of Japanese Americans sent to internment camps being American citizens, what did the
Supreme Court rule in the case Korematsu v. United States?
6. What was the 442nd Nisei Regiment? List two reasons it was significant?
Increased Employment Opportunities
1. What was the impact of WWII on the Depression? Who did industries begin turning to, to help fill jobs?
2. What roles did women play in industry? Who was Rosie the Riveter?
3. What percentage of the workforce did women make up in WWII? What obstacles did they face?
4. What was the “Double V Campaign?” Who was A. Philip Randolph? What did he demand?
5. What was Executive Order 8802? How many African Americans got jobs in defense industries as a result of
Executive Order 8802?
6. How many people joined the NAACP during the War? What was CORE? How did they attempt to fight for
African American Civil Rights?
Migration during WWII
1. What areas in the United States saw the largest population growth during WWII?
2. What was the Bracero Program that was used to help with the Farm Workers shortage in the U.S.?
3. What was the impact of the migration of minorities during WWII on race relations? What happened in Detroit in
1943? What was the Zoot Suit Riot?